Red Witch: Book Two of the Wizard Born Series (32 page)

“I’ll do it, then. I think your parents will be in a permissive mood right now.” He chuckled and nodded.

“I want you to tell my mom and dad as soon as you wake up, even if it’s three o’clock in the morning. Tell them! Please?”

“Don’t worry, I will. They won’t mind if I wake them up for
this
.”

She kissed him again and Jamie said, “Before you go…are you going to be able to find me again in a dream?”

“I can find you anywhere, now, I’m sure. Don’t you worry. You’ll be seeing me every night.”

“Good.” He put his hand to her cheek. “By the way, I met this old Cherokee guy today, and he said there’s a name for what you are. A Dream Talker.”

She frowned. “I kinda like Dream Fairy better.”

“Fine, as long as you can find me. We’re gonna bring you home, Fred.”

“I know.”

* * *

Jamie woke and it was still dark. He sat up and said, “She’s alive!” He threw back the covers and bolted from the bed and out into the hall. He rapped on his parents’ door and shouted, “She’s alive! Wake up! Fred’s alive!”

“Mmm?” he heard his father groan.

“Fred’s alive. She just contacted me in a dream.”

Then he heard his mother shriek, “Yes! Thank God!”

“She wants me to tell her parents right away.”

“Do that,” she said. “They won’t mind. Tell them we’ll be right over.”

Jamie ran back into his room and pulled on his slippers and bath robe, then he scrambled back out the door and flew down the stairs, magically, feet not touching a single step, only pausing at the bottom to push off from the wall to turn the corner that landed him in the front hall. He snatched open the front door and sprinted across the street to Fred’s house.

He rang their doorbell and waited, tapping his foot, his arms wrapped around his chest against the cold, his breath frosting in blue-gray clouds in the light of the street lamp. “Hurry up!” He rang again and beat on the door with his fist.

“All right, I’m coming,” he heard Larry say from inside. “Who is it?”

“Jamie!”

Larry flicked the porch light on and yanked the door open, rubbing his bed-creased face, still in his pajamas. “Is it about Fred?”

A lump suddenly swelled in Jamie’s throat and he couldn’t talk, the surge of emotion too strong. He could only nod.

“She’s alive?”

Jamie nodded again and heard Lisa from the top of the stairs. “Jamie, is that you?”

Larry turned around and shouted. “Fred’s alive! She’s alive, Lisa.”

A sob escaped her as she ran down the stairs, brushing Larry aside and hugging Jamie tightly, crying into his shoulder as hard as Fred had earlier.

Larry grinned and said, “Well, it’s cold. Let’s get inside and close the door. Then you can tell us all about it.”

* * *

Jamie was sitting on the edge of the recliner, relating his encounter with Fred, when he took the cup from Lisa.

“Does everybody have coffee now?” Lisa looked around her living room.

“We’re good, Lisa,” Rachel said, sitting on the couch next to Carl and Larry, everyone still in their robes and slippers.

Lisa smiled as she sat down beside Larry. “It’s still dark out. This is like when you kids used to get us up early on Christmas morning.”

“I don’t mind,” Larry said. “This is worth it.”

Rachel frowned. “I still feel bad for Fred, though. Chained to a bed like an animal!”

“We might be able to do something about that,” Carl said, stroking his chin. “Jamie can learn to pick a lock and teach her how to do it in a dream.”

Jamie shook his head. “That would work if the witches would give her something besides plastic utensils.”

“Still, it’s something to think about. In the meantime, we need to figure out where she is. Next time you see her, ask her to pay attention to how the women are dressed. If they’re wearing bulky sweaters, they’re up north somewhere. If they’re wearing shorts, they could be in the South or in California. He tapped his cheek for a moment. “The birds…can she recreate bird songs in he dreams…accurately? Then we might be able to tell what part of the country she’s in by the types of birds she hears. You can copy sounds, too, right?”

“Yeah, I have an app for that.” Jamie laughed. “A magic app. But she can make the bird sounds, I’m sure, among other things. She can make butterflies that look so real you can’t tell the difference. You can feel them on your finger.”

“She can do that?” Larry asked.

“She’s amazing. And she thinks that she’s a really powerful witch now, way stronger than the two that are holding her prisoner. She’s doing spells that normally takes a triad to make.”

“Oh great.” Larry rubbed his forehead and closed his eyes. “The cat’s out of the bag now. She’ll
never
want to stop doing magic.”

“It was bound to happen anyway, Mr. Callahan. She can’t help what she is.”

Lisa stood and walked to the dark window, fingering the curtains as she spoke. “I don’t like this business of the triad thing and the blood bond. Tell Fred she absolutely must
not
do that. We could lose her forever.” She turned and looked at Jamie, her face lined with concern.

“I don’t know if it would matter, Mrs. Callahan. Fred’s already part of a triad.”

“What?”

“Me and Rollie and her. The Crew.”

“Oh.” She blinked at him. “I forgot about that.”

“Yeah, and we have a pretty strong bond. I don’t know if those ladies’ magic could override it.”

“It’s not worth the risk,” Carl said.

“No, of course not. Fred hates them too much to do it, anyway, and she said they can’t force her to do it because it won’t work unless she does it willingly. It does mean that she’s going to stay chained up until we can get her out of there.”

Larry shook his head and pressed his mouth into a grim line. “God, I hate those women for doing this to our little girl.”

Rachel put her hand on Larry’s shoulder. “We all do, Larry.”

There was a long moment of silence before Jamie said, “By the way, Fred wants me to tell Melanie and Bryce right away. And she wants me to tell them how I found out.”

Everyone looked at him silently for a moment. Larry sighed and said, “Fine. Get them to do the oath.”

Lisa sat down beside Rachel, a strange smile on her face. “I’m so happy right now…I’m giddy.”

“Me too, Lisa.” Rachel smiled. “
So
many emotions percolating in me right now.” She put her arm around Lisa’s shoulders and gave her a big squeeze. “This isn’t such a bad Christmas after all, is it?”

Chapter 31

Jamie couldn’t help but chuckle as Bryce and Melanie, kneeling around the coffee table with him and Rollie, gaped at their hands, watching the glow fade, their fingertips the last to dim.

Rollie laughed. “Boy, I never get tired of that!” He poked Bryce in the arm. “Feels cool, doesn’t it?”

Bryce looked at Jamie and lowered his eyebrows. “What in the heck was
that?
”

“It was magic, Bryce,” Rachel said, a smile pulling up the corners of her mouth. She stood nearby with Carl and her mother, Evelyn. Cory and Gina sat on the couch with Ray, Gina’s father. Gina, dressed in red pants and sweatshirt and a green Christmas vest, had her hand over her mouth and her eyes twinkled.

“No!” Bryce frowned. “What is it, really?”

Connie stepped out of the kitchen, drying her hands on a small towel. “It’s really magic, Bryce.”

Melanie stood and stared at the Bible on the table. Then she looked around the room. “What is going on?”

Jamie stood, too. “We just made you do that oath because it’s magic and it’s binding. We need to tell you about why Fred was kidnapped and how I got in touch with her.”

“Or rather, how she got in touch with you,” Rollie said, standing and straightening his red flannel shirt.

“Right.” Bryce and Melanie looked at Jamie with expectant faces and he said, “I have magic power.
Real
magic. I’m a sorcerer. I’ve been in touch with Fred through our dreams and found out she’s been kidnapped by two women. Two witches.”

The room was silent as Bryce and Melanie stared at Jamie with incredulous looks on their faces.

“They don’t believe you,” Gina said. “Show them something.”

Jamie held his hands out and the yellow shimmer of his shield formed, then he gestured to make himself invisible.

“Cool!” Cory said.

“It’s just a trick,” Bryce said.

Jamie dropped his shield. “How about now?” He floated from the floor and paused about a foot in the air.

Bryce shook his head.

“Jamie, make the doorway to that other world with the three moons,” Gina said. “They’ll get it then.”

“It’s kinda cold there right now. I checked earlier in case it came to this.”

Cory sat up on the edge of the couch. “I agree with Gina. Bryce won’t be able to deny that!”

“Other world?” Melanie said weakly.

Jamie gave a little laugh and traced the outlines of the magic doorway. He pushed it open, revealing the rocky landscape beyond.

Melanie gasped and put her hand to her face while Bryce took a step backward. Rachel handed them their coats, and they accepted them without taking their eyes off the surreal vista Jamie had revealed.

Rollie sat on the couch next to Cory, leaned back and put his hands behind his head. “I think I’ll sit this one out. Ya’ seen one three moon world, ya’ seen ’em all.” He looked at Evelyn. “Mrs. Walsh, did you make any Christmas cookies?”

* * *

Jamie took off his coat in the family room as the doorway winked out behind him. Bryce stared numbly at the space where the doorway had been while Melanie looked at the faces around Jamie’s family room. “All this time?” she said. “He’s been a real magician and we didn’t know it?”

“
Sorcerer
.” Jamie shook his head. “I’m a sorcerer, not a magician.”

“Sorcerers do real magic,” Gina and Cory said in unison, then laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Melanie frowned.

“He’s sensitive about that,” Gina said.

“Hmph.” Bryce stared at the floor for a moment before looking at Jamie. “Why did you have Rollie do the oath with us if he’s known about this for so long?”

“I think it strengthens the magic and makes the oath more binding,” Jamie said. “You can understand why we don’t want you to tell anyone.”

“But if you have all this power, why not just go get Fred and bring her home? With
that
thing.” Bryce gestured to where the doorway had been.

“I told you, we don’t know where she is. The witches won’t tell her.”

Melanie plopped in a wooden armchair beside the Christmas tree. “Witches, sorcerers, magic…wow.” She gave a little nervous laugh. “It’s overwhelming.” Her awed expression turned thoughtful. “But if Fred really is a witch, and she can visit Jamie in dreams, can she get into the witches’ dreams, too?”

“I think so, yeah.”

“What if she were to give them nightmares? I mean, really bad ones, all night long After a couple nights of that, they’d be so sleep deprived that they might make a mistake and give away their location.”

Carl, who was sitting on the armrest of the couch, nodded. “That might work.”

Jamie frowned. “She’ll need to be careful. Those witches are already hurting her with that voodoo doll. Who knows what they’d do if they’re exhausted?”

“It seems like Fred’s best bet right now,” Bryce said. “Unless she can find a spell in one of those magic books that’ll unlock the chain on her ankle.”

“I don’t think there is one,” Jamie said. “I could do it,” — he snapped his fingers — “like that, ’cause I’m a sorcerer, but witches don’t have that kind of power. They have power over people and…nature, I guess.”

“Organic things,” Melanie said. “I bet she can make love potions.” And she glanced at Bryce, who was looking the other way.

“Right.” Jamie studied Melanie for a moment.
Why’d she look at Bryce like that?

Carl rubbed his jaw. “Jamie, in the meantime, tell Fred not to try anything crazy. She’s alive, and we want to keep her that way.”

Rollie brushed cookie crumbs from his shirt. “Well, I think I’m gonna head home. I could use a nap.”

“Rollie?” Melanie said. “Are you excited about the big Talent Search contest this Saturday?”

Rollie shrugged as he stood. “Not really. I might not go.”

“What?” Jamie said.

“I don’t want to go if Fred’s not going.” He picked up his coat from the back of a nearby chair. “I’ll give it ’till Wednesday, and if she’s not home by then, I’m going to back out.”

“But what about the prize money?” Bryce said. “I thought you were hoping to use that for college.”

“Well, there’s no guarantee I’d win anyway. If I have to, I can live at home next year and work part-time and go to the community college.”

Bryce put his hand on Rollie’s shoulder. “Whatever you gotta do, Dude. But I still think you ought to do the talent show.”

“Nah. Not without Fred.” Rollie gave a little wave and left.

* * *

Jamie smiled at Fred as soon as her form materialized beside him. “Merry Christmas.” He kissed her. “I didn’t bring your present.”

Fred laughed. “That’s okay, since you can’t, anyway.” She grabbed his hands. “Did you tell my parents? And Melanie and Bryce?”

“Your parents are happy and thrilled that you’re alive.” Then he told her about his afternoon with Melanie and Bryce.

“Wish I could’ve seen the looks on their faces!” Fred smiled.

“They were stunned, to say the least.” He gave her hands a little shake. “Did you make any potions or anything today?”

“No. Rita and Cassandra ignored me most of the day. But they did give me a new box of Pop Tarts. I guess that was my Christmas present.”

“But you didn’t get them anything,” he said drily.

“I’d like to give them something.” She let go of one of Jamie’s hands and made a fist, scowling as she did. Fred’s face grew serious. “I’ve been scouring those spell books to see if I can find something useful in them, and I think I did. It’s a counter-charm to the knockout powder they used on me.”

“How are you going to make that if the women are always with you when you’re working?”

“I haven’t figured that out yet. But I memorized the recipe — the formula, as you would call it — in case the opportunity arises. I am
not
going to get knocked out by those hags again. I
hate
it. Makes me feel awful.”